Russian missiles strike Ukrainian cities, killing at least five, Ukraine says

(KYIV, Ukraine) — Air raid sirens sounded in Ukraine’s two largest cities just before dawn on Tuesday, as the Russian military again targeted residential areas with a barrage of missiles, killing five and injuring dozens.

Many residents of Kyiv and Kharkiv fled to underground shelters as missiles struck their cities, local officials said.

Russia launched at least 41 missiles, including 12 Iskander-M ballistic missiles, Ukraine said. Most of the 21 missiles targeting Kyiv, the capital, were shot down, including five ballistic ones, officials said.

At least one person was killed in Kyiv, where missiles struck two high-rise buildings, Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said. Other buildings were damaged and rubble covered parked cars, he said.

“This is Russia’s real intentions: the daily terror of civilians,” Klymenko said on social media.

Another person was killed in a strike in Pavlohrad, in the Dnipropetrovsk oblast, and three others were killed in Kharkiv, where an apartment building was destroyed, officials said.

Rescue workers were searching early Tuesday in Kharkiv for people trapped under the rubble at several locations, including an educational facility, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said.

Twenty-seven people had been pulled from the ruins of destroyed buildings, the service said. At least 42 people, including four children, were injured in Kharkiv, officials said.

“I strongly condemn yet another indiscriminate attack” by Russia, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Marija Pejčinović Burić said, adding that the “barbaric acts have to stop.”

A total of more than 60 people were injured, Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s first lady, said on social media.

“We must find the power and fight,” she said. “Promises do not protect us, weapons do.”